The Liebster Award for travel bloggers

Some time ago we got a nice surprise: Marianne, who has the great Norwegian travel blog glimtavvderden.com nominated us for "The Liebster Award". The idea behind the award is to highlight other good (travel) blogs that you think deserve more attention. We received 11 questions from Marianne which we answer in this post. At the end, we have formulated 11 new questions that we will send to a few selected travel bloggers ...

What is the Liebster Award?

Through "The Liebster Award" you can give some travel blogs you like a "High Five". We would like to thank Marianne for giving this award to us, and it's great to be able to pass it on!

The rules seem to vary, but the point is simply to get people to discover new (travel) blogs. Here are some rules that you can follow:

• Answer the 11 questions given to you by the Awardee in a blog post.
• Nominate 5-11 bloggers who are in the same category as yourself (travel bloggers) and who you think deserve to be highlighted.
• Write 11 new questions to be answered by your nominees.

1. What is the scariest (most frightening) thing you have experienced while travelling?

The 2007 elections in Kenya! Probable electoral fraud led to two tribes fighting each other. The situation became very violent and we were stuck in a small guesthouse in Mombasa while shops, roads and airports were closed. When we learnt that 50 women and children had been burned to death in a church by an aggressive mob, we were truly frightened.

After a few more days the road opened up and a (very nervous) taxi driver agreed to take us to the Tanzanian border in return for paying him the equivalent of two months' wages. He locked the car doors and we drove quickly through slums full of armed men and around car wrecks still smouldering from fires.

Once inside Tanzania, we planned to celebrate the escape, but instead we fell asleep early in a small hotel in an unknown village... Later we learnt that 1000 people were killed and 300,000 were displaced during the unrest.

2. What is the strangest (most unusual) thing you have experienced while travelling?

Naked City in Cap d'Agde in France. Here, people are naked not only in the naturist campsite but everywhere in the city: in the streets, in the shops and in the restaurants.

3. What is the most special thing you have eaten (ätit)?

Horse milk balls in a yurt in the Mongolia. But the list could also include cobras in sweet and sour sauce (China), sheep's testicles (Iceland) and sea cucumber (China).

4. What is the most memorable public transport experience you have had?

When we were on the island of Mindoro in the Philippines, I got really sick in the stomach and the hotel maid came with us to find a doctor. First we had to take a so-called "jeepny" through the rainforest and when we reached the next village we had to change to a tricycle (moped with a sidecar). There we sat shaking in the sidecar until we arrived at a small house in the countryside with a little Philippine medical centre.

5. What kind of camera equipment do you have with you when travelling?

Peter has a Samsung Galaxy NX with telephoto and macro lenses. Helena has a Nikon D5200. Sometimes we bring a tripod too.

6. Name three nature experiences you have had that you can recommend to others.

1. Verdon Gorge in France - Europe's own 'Grand Canyon'
2. Plitvice National Park in Croatia - amazing lakes and waterfalls
3. New Zealand - from volcanoes and glaciers to rainforests.

7. Which village that you have visited is the most charming?

Tropea in Calabria in southern Italy is truly unbelievably charming.

8. Which three countries would you recommend others to travel to and why?

1. New Zealand - for the beautiful nature and all the adventures
2. France - for the beautiful nature and good food
3. Croatia - for the crystal clear water and all the cosy villages.

9. What are your favourite places in your own country?

1. Stockholm - our city with places like Djurgården and Old Town
2. The Stockholm archipelago - with all its beautiful islands
3. The west coast - everything from Gothenburg and Smögen to Halmstad and Tylösand

10. Which three places in the Nordic region would you most like to visit?

1. Greenland - seems exotic and exciting
2. Svalbard - seems even more exotic and exciting!
3. Denmark's west coast - supposed to be beautiful, we hear.

11. Which three destinations are at the top of your wish list?

1. Northern Canada - nature seems so powerful here
2. Central Asia - we dream of visiting Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan ...
3. Japan - seems to be so different from all the places we have visited

Travel bloggers we nominate

We follow a lot of travel blogs and it is extremely hard to pick just a few. However, we've chosen a few (big and small) travel blogs that we think deserve a little more attention:

1. Life from the bright side
2. 4000 mil
3. Our motorhome holidays in Sweden and the world
4. 155 cm challenges the world
5. Jeanette Seflin
6. Motorhome criss-cross
7. 29 degrees

Our questions for travel bloggers

1. How do you prefer to travel (charter, backpacking, car holidays, etc.) and why?
2. Tell us about a destination that you think is underrated and that more people should discover!
3. What are your three favourite cities and why?
4. Which three countries have the best food in your opinion?
5. Is there any place you never want to go back to and if so, why?
6. What languages do you speak, and how does this affect your choice of travel destinations?
7. Tell us about a meeting with people that led to something unexpected!
8. Have you ever made a cultural mistake? Tell us about it!
9. Tell us about a time when you challenged yourself and did something you didn't really dare!
10. If you had unlimited money, where and how would you travel?
11. Where is the next journey?